The illusion of separation

Most, if not all of us, think and feel that we are a separate person, a mortal body mind. We think and we feel that we are this body, that we are contained inside this body and that others are contained inside their bodies. The belief is that each of us, independently controls their body and mind. This identification with the mortal body mind is today’s religion.

As a separate person, we also think and feel that we are born on a certain day of a specific year at a specific location and that, in due time, I, the body mind identity, will die.

We think and feel that this body mind is an object, defined with specific boundaries and that it is what I am, a defined object in time and space. We think and feel that I am the body mind that has a specific form, weight, mass and personal objective characteristics.
We think and feel that we are limited since the body mind, as all forms, is limited.
From the perspective of such identification the sense of limitation and the concern about mortality makes sense . Thinking and feeling as an impermanent object is the result of this body mind identification.

But when the question is posed, ‘what is it that is aware of this body mind phenomenon?’, our attention shifts from the external to the source.

Something other than the body mind is aware. The body mind appears and is perceived. It is not self aware, it does not perceive itself. Something other, larger than it, actually not a thing, perceives. Something is putting this experience together, tying it together in a comprehensible whole. Some unifying substance, some embracing principle.

When looking at our experience, we contemplate this unifying principle, only the I AM is found. This I AM is found to be non-dual, non separate from our perception, from our experience itself. They are one as aware presence appearing as this appearance, taking on the form of this experience.

Consider that if aware presence was apart from you, a few miles or a few inches away from yourself, you would not perceive anything. It is the intimacy of being, of you, the intimacy of the perceiver and the perceived as one, that allows perception. Perception is non dual intimacy of the perceiver and perceived as one. Like the intimacy of fire and light.

One could say that perceiving, awaring is our intimacy being bold.
Although the perceived object may vary, although the content varies, the quality of awareness referred to as perception does not vary. the images vary, but the screen remains unchanged, unaffected.

An object cannot perceive. Only the formless does. This is why it is said that it is the formless that takes on form, appears as a form, metamorphoses as form.
Not being an object, it is therefore not contained within any shape. It is formless, boudariless, shapeless, limitless and therefore infinite and all embracing in its infinity.
Meaning there is nothing else but IT, as infinity… for if there was something else, it would be defined by that some boundaries.

Thus it is also said: God appears as all thoughts, flying birds, sensations, perceptions. It has no inside nor any outside and is undefined and inconceivable by the mind.